The Memorial Day holiday came at a good time for the Washington Redskins.

The Minnesota Vikings announced on Friday that they were going to waive defensive end Erasmus James. However, due to the fact that it was the Memorial Day weekend, the league office was closed. The waivers could not be finalized until 4 PM Eastern time on Tuesday. That seemed to be a mere technicality.

According to John Clayton of ESPN.com, however, several teams contacted the Vikings and James’ agent about making a possible waiver claim. The Redskins were one of those teams, but since priority for claims is given in reverse order of last year’s won-loss record (just like the draft), 20 other teams would have a shot at James before the Skins be able to secure him. It was apparent that wasn’t going to happen.

When the Redskins raised the possibility of giving the Vikings some conditional compensation for James, the Vikings were able to rescind the move.

Rookie free agent defensive end Dorian Smith was released to make room for James on the roster.

I really like this move. Conditional 7th round pick in 09 draft? For a player that just a few years ago was a well regarded 1st rounder that Greg Blache really wanted? Great stuff – hopefully the change in scenery is all that James needs.

Anonymous - May 29, 2008 at 6:00 AM

it is not a change of scenery that james needs, but, at the very least, a change of injury luck.maybe playing on grass instead of the artificial surfaces of wisconsin and minnesota will be the change james needs to break the injury bug he has suffered from. but these are not trivial knee injuries. and like courtney brown, he may simply not have a body that can hold up under the violence that is nfl football